Trusting Her Body, Finding Her Team: Jocelyn's Story

One young mother's fight to be heard — and the team that listened.

Toward the end of her second pregnancy, Jocelyn, of Harrington Park, New Jersey, noticed something wasn't right with her right breast — a skin irritation that wouldn't heal. Her obstetrical team reassured her it was likely just hormones. A clean mammogram seemed to confirm it. But the issue kept coming back, and something in Jocelyn told her not to let it go.

"I began my quest to find a breast specialist," she recalls, "and I was really disappointed to see that so many local facilities would not take me as a patient."

Because her imaging looked normal, Jocelyn was told additional testing wasn't necessary. "That is the part that made me feel — as the issue persisted — how can we definitively say that without testing, which is available?"

Determined, Jocelyn made her way to Englewood Health, where a referral from her primary care provider led her to Dr. Ana Maria Burga, a pathologist.

"She took me under her arm and really guided me along," Jocelyn says.

Dr. Burga delivered the diagnosis herself: Paget’s disease of the breast, a rare form of breast cancer that can cause skin changes such as redness, irritation, itching, or flaking. Because these changes can resemble common skin conditions, Paget’s disease can sometimes be difficult to recognize.

Within minutes, breast surgeon Dr. Jenna Gillen was at her side, laying out exactly what came next. Jocelyn describes going "from diagnosis to plan in such a short amount of time." And then, unexpectedly, additional imaging revealed a second, separate invasive cancer in her other breast.

What followed was a double mastectomy and a course of radiation that Jocelyn and her radiation oncologist, Dr. Mei Zhang, decided on together.  

Through it all, Jocelyn says she felt carried by an entire team, not just her physicians. "I felt like I was in a relay, just passing the baton to the next amazing team member at Englewood Health," she says. "Every person — from the valet to the receptionist, to the women at the mammography table — every single person in this hospital is happy and kind."

As a mother of two young girls, Jocelyn leaned heavily on her husband through the hardest weeks of recovery. Now months after her diagnosis, she hopes sharing her experience will help other women recognize that breast cancer does not always present as a lump or appear the way they might expect.

Her message is simple and urgent: "You are your own best advocate. You know your body best. It is not okay to be dismissed — you need to find a place that will listen to you and treat you with the dignity you deserve."

To Englewood Health, she offers this: "Thank you so much for all of the care and concern and compassion you showed me at my most scared moment in my life."

Posted on September 1, 2026